Wanton Angels
by Traingham
Summary: Shinji wants the absolute surrender of another, to be loved without pretense, but so does Asuka and Misato; Ritsuko and Rei; Maya and Kaji, and the rest of the world. What they all fail to understand is that in order to be loved unconditionally one must be willing to surrender just as much as they wish to receive, and what could be more horrifying than that?
1. Chapter 1

_**Disclaimer**__**:**__Eh, it's better off not being mine anyway..._

**_The Wanton Angels  
_**

**_Episode 1_**

_By Traingham_

* * *

"Oooh, how about this one here?" Misato Katsuragi's delight at her own discovery did not go unnoticed by the other customers browsing the wares of the bike shop; When a charming woman of her particular figure and temperament walked into a closed space filled with hopeful young men every cause for her excitement would naturally fall under scrutiny without fail, however, the display she was putting on wasn't for their attention. Her beauty was a curse, truly it was.

"Hey, Asuka, how about that second opinion I brought you along for?" Her address drew the eyes of the customers over to her companion who could not have been said to be equally as lovely, but likely to be a fair contender given a few more years of development.

The redhead schoolgirl frowning at her reflection in the shop window made a sort of noncommittal sound with a shrug of her shoulders, arms crossed like the unwilling participant that she was. The mention of going out to do some shopping did the trick of luring the German spitfire out of the dreary confines of her room, but as soon as it became clear to Asuka that this bike shop had been their intended destination all along the initial excitement that she flew out of the apartment with immediately died and she fell into a brooding mood again that conjured enough negative energy for a rain cloud to be imminent. When Misato asked the floor attendant that had been ogling her from afar to point them toward a good selection of bikes that he felt would be suitable for a young man attending high school, the second child's mood became just a little darker for it because there was only one person the older woman could be referring to with that particular preference in mind.

The lovely major directed a glare at the moody girl for her unwillingness to provide a decent response, glancing at the bike that had caught her eye a final time before tearing herself away from it to stalk over to the window, where Asuka appeared determined to remain for the entirety of their visit, with a honeyed call of, "Oh, Asuka, why can't you pretend for just a moment to be interested in anything other than yourself?"

Of course the sweetness of her voice only made the words sound harsher; that was the intention, and she received a smoldering glare in kind that should have singed the perfectly threaded eyebrows on her lovely face with all its intensity. That didn't deter Misato from prying the young woman out of her fortified, cast iron shell in the least. Her relationship with the second child was not what could be referred to as genuinely friendly in nature; the most they could ever manage was to show an acceptable measure of civility to one another just short of airing out what personal opinions were truly on their mind–especially when Kaji happened to be occupying the same room with them. Still, she was the stubborn girl's legal guardian, which placed Misato in the unenviable position of having to observe every aspect of her delicate personality up close and she knew that Asuka was capable of honest kindness in her heart, particularly when Shinji Ikari was concerned (Not that it ever managed to last long enough to leave a positive impression on the boy. He didn't have enough psychiatric experience to anticipate the emotional land mines that accompanied their every interaction).

Misato's provocation struck a nerve in the girl because her shoulders shifted with a light cringe. Good.

"Why did you drag me along into this, Misato?" Asuka asked tautly, the daggers in her eyes biting, though not as hard as before. "Why would I know what that idiot likes anyway?"

Resting both hands on her cocked hips, Misato answered in a contrastingly cheerful tone, "I brought you along so I wouldn't be lying to Shinji when I tell him that we both picked out this gift for him." The major's smile was accommodating in a gloating sort of way, or at least that's how It appeared to the younger woman. "Besides, Asuka, it doesn't matter what you pick out for him. It's the thought that counts, and he'll be grateful for it either way, I'm sure."

"Doesn't matter what I pick, hmm?" The upward curl in Asuka's lips appeared wolffish at best. Misato got the impression that her intentions weren't noble. "Then how about–"

"Assuming that what you have in mind isn't pink, or involves tassels and butterflies." She stopped Asuka before she could point to the glitter littered bike on display in the girl's selection at the far left corner of the shop. "C'mon, Asuka. Let's be nice about this."

"Why does Shinji suddenly need a bike anyway?" The German girl argued with a toss of her hair before she resumed crossing her arms. "If he needs to get anywhere faster he can just rely on his legs and run like he always does." She broke eye contact with Misato, looking back to the window with a low, mean spirited grumble of, "He's pretty good at that."

"Because he almost collapsed in the middle of the street hoisting the groceries from the market yesterday, and I thought it would be nice to make things easier on him." Misato reasoned, choosing to let that snide comment slide in favor of some teasing at the girl's expense. "If it bothers you so much, you can always try helping him whenever he does the shopping. Maybe you two could benefit from sharing a nice, long walk together once a week."

"I already do him the favor of walking to school with him in spite of how much higher I am on the social ladder, and he doesn't even appreciate that." Asuka retorted with a humph. "I don't need that pervert getting the wrong idea about us. He might do something stupid."

"Gee, because that would be unforgivable, right?" The major quipped with a shrug of her shoulders. Asuka's brow twitched in response. "You know, I think this bike would be great for Shinji, maybe for more than just shopping."

"Yeah?" The second child responded, but didn't seem to care either way. At this point she refused to make eye contact again, turning her attention to just about everything else in the shop but her guardian, mostly the back ends of the bicycles racked up on display. Shinji's bike would have one of those backseats, wouldn't it? That was inevitable–not that he would use it for anything other than groceries though. The thought of Shinji Ikari riding his shiny, little bike around with a girl sitting in the backseat was laughable at best. That wuss would never work up the nerve to offer some girl a ride!

Misato was either unaware that Asuka had lapsed back into her state of brooding, or too caught up in envisioning the benefits Shinji would receive from her brilliantly conceived gift to take a moment to reel her back to the present conversation. She continued to talk either way, explaining, "Having a bike might encourage Shinji to broaden his horizons and explore the rest of the city. You know, make him more adventurous!"

Asuka spied a sleek, black mountain bike hanging from the wall to Misato's back. "Adventurous, right." She droned with a vacant look gracing her lovely features. The sports bike beside it had a color scheme awfully similar to Unit-01; could that have been intentional? Wouldn't have been the first time she saw those colors matched together on a product, like those name brand headphones that were gaining popularity with the younger adults.

"And guys with a sense of adventure tend to be bold, you know?" Misato went on like she was doing a voice over for an animal documentary. "Some girls will take notice of that." And with that last line Asuka perked up from her reverie, now fully present for the rest of the conversation. "It'll be a matter of time before Shin-chan is pedaling along with a cute girl sitting in the backseat." The major crossed her arms and nodded like an approving guardian granting her blessings to a worthy suitor. "Yeah, a girl would be great for him."

Asuka's response was a derisive snort, and Misato could not understand for the life of her just why the German girl felt the need to respond in such a way toward anything remotely positive when the young Ikari was concerned. It was beginning to grate her nerves.

"Seriously, Asuka." She quirked a brow at the girl in question. "What the hell is your problem?"

Asuka immediately went on the defensive, shoving the question right back at her. "What's your problem, Misato?"

"I swear, you hate Shinji." Misato nearly threw her hands in the air, but restrained herself when she realized how much more attention that would draw. "Its like you want nothing but the absolute worst for him, and for what?"

"Hate him?" Asuka's face gradually grew a shade of red. "That would imply that I actually have feelings for that perverted idiot!" Her reaction would have implied just that, but the second child was ever adamant to convince the whole world otherwise. "Don't be stupid!"

"Then how about laying off of him for a while?" Misato suggested, one eye narrowing with a slight cock of her head.

Asuka's immediate expression was confusion. "Laying off him?"

"Yeah, quit bothering him." The major's lovely expression grew dark. "Stop belittling him at every opportunity, for one. Think you can do that for more than a day?"

"Maybe if he stopped giving me reasons to do it!"

"He's an inexperienced boy in puberty, Asuka." Misato argued in a controlled voice, her mounting anger held at bay by her obligations as a guardian. "And you're not helping that when you're wandering around the apartment in nothing but a towel, knowing that you can just as easily head directly to your room after a shower. Its like you want an excuse to complain about him."

"You're joking!" The flame haired pilot argued incredulously. "Why would I intentionally do something like that?"

Misato held a hand up, turning her head to the side. "I'm not gonna stand here and discuss that with you now, but here's some food for thought..." Misato turned back to look Asuka in the eye. "...Let's assume that you really do hate all the attention you receive from Shinji; the shy glances that he steals at you when you're dressed especially nice, or the stupid things that he says when you tease him. Don't you think it would make things easier for you if another girl came along and took him off your hands?"

Asuka suddenly felt as though she was staring down a basilisk. "...Off my hands?" But how could someone take away what has never been in her possession to begin with? She felt a rising heat beneath her lower eyelids, a feeling she commonly associated with the frustration of being unable to help herself. She hated it. She hated the fact that Misato Katsuragi could actually push her so close to tears without actually trying, but most of all she absolutely hated how thinking of that idiot always stirred about such intense emotions within her, powerful enough to remind her just how alone she felt in the world.

She wouldn't allow herself to cry, not in front of this bitch.

"I didn't come out here for a lecture, Misato." Asuka kept herself in check at a simmer; anymore and things would have escalated quickly. "Buy your precious Shinji a fucking bike, see if I care. If we're lucky he might just use it to pedal far away from Tokyo-3 the next time he throws a bitch fit." The cruel smile that twisted her lovely face could have caused an entire bed of flowers to wither. "And with his luck he might just get hit by a truck." She held both hands up with a casual shrug. "Either way, we might all benefit from that."

A soft gasp slipped from Misato's mouth before she could catch herself. "Asuka..." Her right hand twitched with the tell tale signs of a possible slap across the redhead's face, but it clenched tightly and remained held at her side.

Satisfied with herself, Asuka gave the major her back and walked smoothly to the door. "I'll be waiting inside the car."

* * *

**_We've had a misunderstanding...  
_**


	2. He does that a lot

_**Disclaimer**_:_Eh, it's better off not being mine anyway..._

**_T_**_**he Wanton Angels**_

_**Episode 2**_

_By Traingham_

**A.N**_: Big-O did it first..._

**_A.N II:_**_To the readers who ask about "Angels in Despair" and "Second Chances at Fatherhood", those are lost forever (Well, to me, anyway. No doubt someone in the world has a copy on their computer somewhere). "Second Chances at Fatherhood" really has no purpose anymore since Gainax has already released a few official works that basically implemented those ideas (Gendo playing dad; the angels in human form; post third impact world and post second impact world colliding; Rei I, II, and III existing at the same time; Yui being alive, and blah, blah, blah.) I do plan on rewriting "Angels in Despair" though; likely with a rebuild twist._

* * *

Shinji Ikari often thought of women in his spare time when his troubled mind wasn't occupied with its default setting of self loathing, though not in the particular sense that society would expect of a young man like himself; at least not always in that sense. Aside from his friends Touji and Kensuke, there wasn't much of a male presence to speak of day in and out. Kaji popped up every now and then at his own convenience whether it was to drop by at the apartment to try his hand at rekindling Misato's passion for him from their golden years together, or to impart upon Shinji the occasional pep talk. Aoba and Hyuuga never went out of their way to see Shinji personally, only greeting him on chance encounters in Nerv headquarters, which only left two other men to speak of: Gendo Ikari, the man who was his father in life only in the biological sense, and Kozo Fuyutski, a man no easier to connect with emotionally if only because he was just as hard to get ahold of at a social convenience as Commander Ikari.

Women, on the other hand, were common company and simply played more of a dominant influence in his life for some reason or another. Now that in no way implied that Shinji Ikari understood the female psyche any better than the next guy, because his living accommodations certainly weren't made any easier for the fact. What that statement truly meant was that his life was a touch more complex than the average fourteen year old, and as a result there were higher expectations on his ability to approach seemingly mundane, everyday situations such as the act of using the toilet, or taking a shower. He had to be able to pick up on the smaller details of seemingly inconsequential conversations; notice subtle changes in the appearance of his housemates, and read their ever shifting moods for fear of unsettling the balance of his relationship with them.

Once again, Shinji Ikari often thought of women in his spare time, normally when the two women that he shared an apartment with weren't around to disturb his thoughts, but perhaps that was an issue in itself–the thinking. Shinji did a lot of that. He did a lot of reflection, introspection, and observation; a lot of inner work that never really saw the light of day outside of his mind because he simply wasn't adept at sharing his thoughts, and that was a problem. Women were all about expression of self, about sharing private thoughts and personal observations with one another, so his inability to do that sort of thing in a social environment placed him in a very interesting position, because Misato and Asuka desired his input. Perhaps both of the lovely women had their differing reasons for desiring as much, however, regardless of what those reasons were it all came down to the same intended result–to better understand him as an individual.

"How do you feel about highschool?" Misato might ask him.

"It's fine, I guess." He might reply awkwardly.

"Just fine, huh?" She might respond to his plain answer disappointedly.

"Why do you play the cello?" Asuka might inquire of him.

"I don't know." He would likely reply lamely.

"Such a boring boy." She would naturally respond to his lameness.

For Shinji that was fine. He could live with them concluding that he wasn't a person of interest, that he wasn't worth their time–but women were complicated people; they made his head hurt. Misato still found him interesting; she still wanted to know more about him despite his own personal opinion that he had absolutely nothing more to offer her in that respect. The people that originally took care of him before he came to Tokyo-3 would have simply written him off and proceeded on with their lives, but Misato was a persistent woman. Shinji chalked it up to his ability to pilot the Evangelion. Yeah, that was the reason Misato bothered wasting her time on him.

Although he often wondered if that was really the case, or a cop out on his part because he was too afraid to accept the possibility that maybe he was just a close minded recluse that didn't have the world figured out after all. Pathetic.

...but, really, that just made the next person harder to write off.

Asuka Langely Soryhu, second child, and self proclaimed ace pilot of Evangelion Unit-02, was a conundrum given the form of a fourteen year old girl. From day one she makes it clear that she sees him as nothing more than a stepping stone to her claim as Nerv's number one pilot, treating him like gum beneath the sole of her shoe destined to be scraped away in due time, but then they meet on a non professional basis and she wants to talk to him like equals. One moment she tells him to stop talking to her on breaks and the next moment she's mad at him for being so quiet all the time when they're together at home. She walks around the apartment in the loosest, low cut outfits, just short of baring it all, when he knows for sure that she has a decent pair of pajama pants and a casual tee somewhere in her diverse wardrobe, and she gets angry at him for letting his eyes linger upon her exposed curves longer than necessary when she calls his attention for something. She hates him today, she wants to be friends tomorrow.

"Kiss me Shinji, I'm bored!" She demands.

"Ugh, kissing to pass the time was a horrible idea!" She gargles.

"Why won't you say anything to me, idiot?!" She complains.

"Get away from me, pervert!" She cries.

"She's crazy." Shinji muttered to himself with an annoyed crease at his brow, standing in the kitchen with his attention elsewhere when he should have been monitoring the beef stew he was cooking for supper this evening. In his lapse his hand went lax around the wooden spoon he had been using to stir the stew, palm relaxing just at the rim of the piping hot stew pot, and–"OW!"–the smarting dealt to his hand harshly catapulted him back to reality. Scowling at the angry burn he rushed over to the sink to open the cold water and let it pass over his hand.

"Dammit." The house chef turned away from his numbing palm to glare at the stew pot like a partner betrayed, however, the silent quarrel between them would have to postpone until a later time. Someone was deliberately ignoring the doorbell, instead favoring a heavy hand upon the door. "Asuka?" It had to be the German girl because any other threatening presence willing to bang on the door with such force would have been neutralized by the section-2 agents that were, no doubt, monitoring the apartment complex at all hours of the day, all days of the week, and so on and so forth.

Funny how that still made Shinji feel so vulnerable.

Another hard knock at the door roused Shinji forth from the kitchen with a tentative answer of, "I'm coming!" He took a deep breath to calm his nerves as he approached the door and placed a hand over the panel beside it to press two fingers against the 'open' button. As he predicted, Asuka Langely Soryhu stood there expectantly, arms crossed and a sullen expression on her beautiful face.

Oh yes, he found her beautiful–painfully so, but let's use that word in a sentence so that it was in the proper context, shall we? Asuka Langely Soryhu was like a beautiful storm. She was the sort of calamity that held your eyes, paralyzing you with its awe inspiring presence up until the point that it was too late to escape its deadly embrace. Weird, then, how Shinji Ikari so easily remained oblivious to every attempt she made to swallow him up.

"What took you so long, third child?" The second child snapped at him as she let herself in. "I interrupt something?"

Shinji blinked, curiously poking his head outside before looking back at his ill-tempered roommate. "Wait. Didn't you and Misato leave together? What happened?"

"She's coming." Asuka told him with a dismissive wave, walking to her room without looking back at him.

"Did you guys get into an argument again?" Shinji asked, still standing beside the door for Misato to arrive. The tone of his voice indicated that he didn't approve of how often the two of them butt heads, and that stopped Asuka just as she placed her hand on her door to slide it open.

She turned to glare at him, but a smile broke out on her face as she exclaimed, "Well, well!" She sounded impressed, but he knew she was only mocking him. "So the third child does pay attention to what goes on in this apartment when he locks himself in his room!" The smile that broke out on her face when she began to mock him fell into a scowl, and she snapped, "Mind your own business!"

Thinking that perhaps he did come off as a little nosy, Shinji apologized to her (_Asuka's brow twitched at the worn out line_). "I'm sorry." But it didn't feel proper to simply leave it at that. "It's just that–"

"Why are you holding your hand like that?" At some point in the exchange Asuka's attention fell from his face to the hand he'd been gingerly holding since she walked in.

Shinji glanced down at his smarting hand as if just realizing he had it attached at the wrist. "Oh, I burned myself."

The way he downplayed it angered Asuka, bringing a deep furrow to her brow. She walked over to him without a word, grabbed him by the arm, and yanked him over toward the kitchen. "Come here." She spoke to him as she would a child.

"Asuka, wait." He stammered, worried about leaving the door open and unattended, but she didn't seem to be having it from him then and there or at any other moment for that matter. Past the pots and dishes they went until the girl found what she dragged him into the kitchen for. "Misato still hasn't..." The words died on his tongue when he felt the soothing sensation of cool water washing over his smarting palm. He then realized what she was doing; helping him in the same way he helped Rei Ayanami when she burned herself on his visit to her apartment.

Asuka didn't seem to be aware of it herself, the way her thumb idly stroked his wrist, or how her other hand found its spot at his waist to maintain their close proximity. "What are you, stupid?" She asked him, delicately holding his hand underneath the pouring water. "Can't you take care of yourself? I mean, you're supposed to be good at handling yourself in the kitchen, right?"

As she spoke to him Shinji turned his gaze away from Asuka's face for fear of succumbing to the urge to lean closer and sniff the subtle scent of shampoo in her hair. No doubt that sort of behavior would earn him an open hand to the cheek, or a fist to the gut _(Not the face!)_. Instead he allowed his sights to settle upon their hands in the sink with a timid, "Thank you."

Asuka felt the breath momentarily catch in her throat from hearing those two unfamiliar words leave his mouth. Shinji never thanked her for anything in the past. Perhaps that had much to do with the general nature of their relationship (which was ambiguous at best), but she had to admit that there was something especially nice about it.

"Shinji, I'm home!" Misato's voice filled the apartment melodically with the announcement of her arrival.

Asuka's expression once again soured at the sound of their guardian calling out to her fellow pilot and roommate, almost as if she had just then recalled something unpleasant. Glancing at Shinji she saw that his attention had been drawn toward the sound of the lovely major's voice. He was like a puppy, she swore he was.

The nice things never did last very long.

Asuka removed herself from him with a humph. "I'm sure you can take it from here, third child." She turned to leave the kitchen, stopping for a moment when Misato came to lean up against the side of the entry way with a wide smile. Seeing Asuka together with Shinji made it falter somewhat though. That much didn't go unnoticed by the resident male, nor did the atmosphere of heavy tension that permeated the small room when both ladies locked eyes.

"I'll be in my room." Asuka didn't hold the stare down very long before brushing past the lovely major. Misato didn't bother turning her head to see the German girl off.

"Wait, Asuka!" Shinji called to her, pulling his hand out of the sink. "We're about to have dinner!" He didn't receive a response.

"Don't worry about her, Shinji." Misato waved off his concern, her expression lightening up again. "She's just having one of those days."

Shinji pulled a paper towel to pat his hand dry. "She seemed just fine a second ago." He raised his palm for Misato to see the thin welt that had risen where his hand made contact with the rim of the pot. "She brought me into the kitchen to run cold water over it, see?"

Misato cringed in her usual exaggerated fashion. "Ooh! How did that happen?" She approached him to get a better look at it, genuine concern marking her lovely features–Oh god, was she ever lovely.

Shinji usually ignored Touji and Kensuke when they whined to him about how fortunate he was to live with a woman as beautiful and sexually appealing as Misato Katsuragi, but only because he was able to affirm as much to himself every morning when she greeted him in her high cut jean shorts. Strangely though, he wasn't as affected by her good looks as his classmates were, perhaps because he was aware of how much of a slob she could be when she wasn't concerned with keeping up appearances.

"I burned myself on the pot. That's all." Shinji told her nonchalantly, but the major frowned.

"Geez, Shin-chan," She caressed his hand between hers. "Be careful in here. I mean, yeah, I love your cooking–I mean, _reaaaally_ love your cooking–but if you're going to get hurt in here..."

"Don't worry about it, Misato." He tried not to sound annoyed. "It happens."

She scowled at him. "You say that a lot, Shinji!" She pressed her forehead to his hard, narrowing her eyes as she stared back into his. "You're not going to get a steady girlfriend if you act like a jerk to her!"

"What?" Shinji stammered, pulling his head back. "I'm not being a jerk. I'm just saying–"

"That you'll be more careful next time." Misato finished for him.

"That I'll be more careful next time." Shinji bowed his head.

The older woman slapped a hand on his shoulder with a pleased grin. "You're learning." She then sniffed the air theatrically. "Mmmmm. That smells like heaven." Said in a husky voice that would have sent Hyuuga into cardiac arrest.

"Beef stew." Shinji informed her pleasantly. "Bought the meat at a good price yesterday. I think the guy likes me."

Misato managed to hold herself back from teasing him about mentioning that last line. "Well, I'm sure after that fall you took on the sidewalk yesterday, that meat should be extra tender." She did so adore how his face turned beet red when she poked fun at him though. How could she resist the opportunity?

"Uh..." Shinji's back straightened upright with a jerk, his lower lip quivering with embarrassment. "How did you know that?!"

She winked affectionately. "A girl has her secrets." She smiled wickedly. "And some of the good women in section-2 do love to keep surveillance on you."

"What about my privacy?" Shinji asked flatly, his expression deadpan.

"I'm sure kidnappers would support that sentiment." She quipped before shrugging her shoulders. "At least they don't watch you on the toilet, or in your sleep."

Shinji had to agree with that. "Well, yeah, I guess."

Misato raised a hand playfully with a cock of her shapely hips. "Those are exclusive to me."

And Shinji was beet red once again, crying out, "Misato!" His predictable response made her laugh until her throat choked. Moments like these made the rest of her night after the long hours at Nerv headquarters. Sure, she had Ritsuko there to bother when the day went by that much slower, but the faux blonde never did know how to carry on interesting conversations outside of subjects of her own work, which kind of defeated the purpose of going to her office.

"Seriously though, Shinji. We need to put some more muscle on that body." She told him in a semi-serious tone, patting a hand on his bicep. The training he received at Nerv did make his body more solid, but it would have been nice to see him get a little bigger; like that Suzuhara kid he hung out with. "Asuka can bench press more than you, no sweat. Doesn't that bother you just a little bit?"

Shinji bowed his head slightly, pressing his forefingers together at the tips. "Well, if you're going to make me self conscious about it..." He grumbled, looking aside.

"Tell you what!" Misato exclaimed excitedly, poking him in the nose. "How about we get a gym membership together? We'll be workout partners!"

Shinji shook his head. "Nah...you'd embarrass me out there." He was serious, actually. Misato's tight body wasn't the product of a casual lifestyle after all. He'd caught a few female Nerv employees staring enviously on more than one occasion; Ristuko and Maya included (_And Maya certainly did stare. Perhaps more than others_.).

Misato rolled her eyes knowingly. "You'll be fine. Just sleep on it, okay?" She stepped around him to lead him out of the kitchen from behind, saying, "In the mean time, me and Asuka thought we'd get you something to make getting around with those grocery bags easier."

"You got me something?" Shinji asked, looking to her over his shoulder with a faint glimmer of excitement as she continued to lead him to the apartment door. "Really?"

"You bet." The major told him with a grin, drawing no small measure of gratification from the childlike expression on his normally stoic face. She removed her left hand from his shoulder once they reached the door to press the 'open' button on the panel beside it, and, "TA-DAAAH!"

Shinji hopped up when he saw the bike waiting for him just outside the door. "Whoa!" He cried out, falling to one knee to inspect the bike up close (_That paint job though...Unit-01?_). "You guys..." He cried out, but couldn't form the rest of the words. "You guys..." He repeated himself, though this time his voice came off as a little strange.

"Shinji?" Misato could swear she heard his voice crack.

He turned his head to look up at her and her heart nearly broke. "I don't deserve this." Tears welled in his eyes. "You're too good to me, Misato."

"Are you kidding me?" The older woman shook her head at the claim. "You deserve more than this Shinji. Way more." She held up a finger to stop him from going on with the usual self depreciating rant that he was prone to making in these situations. "And don't start putting yourself down in front of me, Shinji, or I'll beat you with that bike until you accept it." She crouched beside him to wrap an arm around his shoulder, pulling him close. "Besides, Asuka picked it out." She lied. "She'll probably punt a toaster into your bath water if she finds out you're dissatisfied, you know."

Shinji chuckled. "I guess you're right."

Twas plausible.

* * *

_**We've come to terms...**_


End file.
